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Instructions for this assignment-
Personal Memoir and Analysis Assignment
In th
Instructions for this assignment-
Personal Memoir and Analysis Assignment
In this final assignment for our course, you will have the chance to bring together all that you have learned in this course in order to construct your own memoir and then analyze it in light of the issues, concepts and controversies around the notion of “truth” and “hoax.”
The assignment will be broken down into two components:
PART ONE: your own, original memoir, written about you and by you.
PART TWO: a guided, literary analysis of your memoir using the topics listed here.
This assignment does not require any additional research; instead, you will be asked to reflect critically on your own memoir and its place amongst the Life Writing narratives we’ve looked at in this class.
On this page you will find
* How to Get Started
* Requirements for your Original Memoir
* Requirements for the Guided Literary Analysis
How to Get Started
Think of the city or town where you lived in the past. To nudge your memory, generate a list of names associated with that place, such as street names, geographical features: rivers, meadows, farms, parks. Include the names of stores, restaurants, public buildings. Generate as much detail as you can. Pick an important time in your life. Think about the house, the garden, the rooms and your family of that time. Think about the school you went to: picture the surroundings, the classrooms: what they looked like, what they smelled like and what they sounded like.
After you’ve done some thinking about a significant place associated with your memory, see if you have any memorabilia from that time: letters, postcards, photographs, yearbooks, ticket stubs.
Think of an event that’s unusually vivid in your memory. For example: a graduation; your first “time”; the birth of a child; a moment of humiliation; a moment of pride; a moment of love; a moment of profound sadness. Any moment will do.
Requirements for your Original Memoir
There are a few ways to approach this part of the assignment.
Written Memoir. Write a memoir (minimum 600 words) about a chosen “moment”. Remember to include details that bring the narrative to life, including imagery, descriiptive details and dialogues. Feel free to play with the various forms of narrative that we have looked ta in the class as well as other techniques such as stream of consciousness. Integrate visuals/photos if you choose to.
OR
(Social) Media Memoir. Create a Vlog, PowToon, or other media-based version of your memoir. Ensure that the completed memoir is 5-7 minutes in length (minimum) and embraces the definitions of memoir as described in Module One of the class.
OR
Alternative Memoir. The sky’s the limit for this option. If you would like to tell your memoir through art, create a graphic novel format using a mix of images and text. If you would like to tell your memoir through ceramics, glass, or textiles, then choose the medium that let’s you tell your story best.
Whether you choose the Written, Media or Alternative format, this portion of the assignment must
* meet the definition of Life Writing as described in Module 1
* explore issues related to social and/or historical context as explored in Module 2
* relate to themes of truthfulness and deception as discussed in Module 3
Requirements for Your Guided Literary Analysis
The Guided Literary Analysis is intended to be a reflection on how you wrote your memoir: the choices that you made as an author in light of the knowledge you’ve gained as a reader in the class. In the Analysis you’ll have a chance to think critically about the writing process and discuss your memoir in light of the issues, concepts and controversies we cover throughout the course.
In addition to introduction and conclusion paragraphs, your analysis should include:
* Genre Rationale: justification of why your memoir should be considered a form of Life Writing
* Inspiration: a discussion of the memoirs and authors who inspired your memoir (ie. style, content, narrative voice) including specific cited examples
* Role of Truth: an analysis of your memoir and its truthfulness, including detailed discussions of specific examples related to course content we’ve covered on
* memory,
* exaggeration and
* point of view
* Role of Literary Devices: discuss specific examples of sensory and figurative language used to make your memoir vivid and memorable. Integrate comparisons to at least one other memoir from class.
* Role of Dialogue: discuss specific examples of dialogue used to tell your story — and/or why you chose not to include dialogue. Integrate comparisons to at least one other memoir from class.
* Insights and Lessons: discuss any insights you’ve gathered about yourself by creating this memoir. Include specific references to and examples from your memoir.
General assignment guidelines for the Guided Literary Analysis
* Length: approximately 600-750 words (600 word minimum)
* Cited Examples: references to course readings and slate content must be cited
* Long Quotations (40 words or more): may be excluded from the word count
* Organization: include an introduction and conclusion to this section of the paper; use the headings above to organize ideas (see APA or MLA style guides for format requirements)
Previous Assignments from the course
Chat one
Dima Qasem Notes-
Wayson Choy’s Shadows reading main points-
The paper shows a child innocent dream, acknowledging the existing limitations.
The mother’s silence adds to fhe frustration and lack of understanding.
The ending does not resolve the issue, leaving room for further emotional exploration.
Evelyn Lau’s Runaway main points-
The novel shows how tough life can be in regular neighborhood.
Lau’s life gets more difficult after trying to run away when she was fourteen, she ends up getting into drugs and selling herself.
Lau’s writing when she was young shows how she felt, being sad and felt lonely.
Lau’s talks about wanting to change things.
Lau’s struggles with who she is and what she is supposed to do. Even when things are difficult. She still wants to make things better.
Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family
The writer really wants to find out about his family’s past especially their hidden parts covered by a big stories of fights and argument.
The writer felt strongly connected to this past and thinks it affects his life now.
The excerpt also talks about how hard it is to know the truth about certain people in the family when there’s lot of drama.
Questions for discussion-
Q1- Compare Choy’s image of Vancouver in war-time 1940s to Lau’s suburban/urban perspectives in the late 1980s.
Answer- @Dima – Blth Choy ans Lau tell us new things about a big topic: how people move to Canada and how kids born here getting along with kids born in other countries. Lau studied Chinese people Vancouver for long time. He found that different groups of Chinese people had different ideas about being Chinese. He looked at 35 years of history and said there were five main groups: old immigrants who came before 1924, kids born here after WWII, new immigrants who came after WWI, new immigrants who came after WWI, new i migrants who came in the 1970’s and kids born here in the 1870’s. Each group had it own story and problems and these affected others too. Choy also studied this topic and talked about important people in the Chinese community to understand why these groups don’t always get along.
@Diego – Both Evelyn and Choy often describe Vancouver as a rough city where during the night it was common to spot people drunk or high on drugs. As for landscape, both often spoke about the city at night as a mysterious or dark place. We can see that in Evelyn’s quote : “It’s getting cold finally; it was freezing when I went out for a walk at 5:00 a.m., the scene like some freaky LSD trip. The sky was a whirl of fire and smoke, the streets black and wet.” Choy also makes reference to dark nights when recalling the war times in Vancouver. “Throughout Vancouver at night during the war years, the streetcars and other vehicles had their headlights taped up, so that only a slit of light shone through. No one was allowed to drive faster than fifteen miles and hour. Glowing slit-eyes prowled city streets like unknown creatures, tail lights like the red eyes of tigers.”
Q2- Choy often speaks of different kinds of ghosts in his memoir and the ways in which the ghosts haunted his childhood: “I took for granted that the Keefer house had a kwei, a ghost, that had provoked father to turn into a demon” (Choy; as cited in Fetherling, 2001, p. 474).
Answer- @Dima – in his memoir, Choy talks about ghost stories but he does not see them as just made up tales, he sees it as a way to show how sadness or emotion can stick around families for long time because of moving to new place. He remembers his early days and does not think about his family’s history or how hard his parents worked. The ghost in his house represents the sadness and struggles passed down from his ancestors to his dad then to him. He does not like how Western stories about the Chinese ghost either makes them seem romantic. He believes these stories are really important for understanding the complex truths about the cultural and where people come from.
@Diego – Ghosts’ stories were important to Choy as they reminded him of his childhood, family, and Chinese traditions. Choy re-tells various times where his family would discuss ghost stories. One that specifically links them to Chinese tradition is when Fifth aunty mentioned that in China town there are ghosts everywhere. Choy asks why don’t they go home, “They wait, Third Uncle explained, for their bones to ship back home. Home, of course, was always a village or city in Old China, the place where you were raised, where they still wanted you, even dead;
Similarly one could say that Evelyn was also haunted by her memories of Vancouver. Vancouver being the place where her parents lived which she loved, the palace where she grew up, but also the place where she faced a lot of struggles. Evelyn mentioned wanting to leave Vancouver and wanting to return to Vancouver several times. One such instance where Evelyn decides that she will leave Vancouver again but in the same sentence she mentions it was not a good idea indicates that it was not so much the city pushing her away but her bad memories/ experiences of it. “I have to repeatedly remind myself of my reasons for leaving Vancouver; it seems silly now. I shouldn’t have left “help” in the form of a red-faced Dr. Hightower, who was sad that I was going, sounding angry for once.”
Q3- The SLATE content for Weeks 4 and 5 ask that we look closely at the ways in which context impacts Life Writing. Discuss how the lead characters/narrators are effected by either their social, economic, and/or psychological context.
Answer- @Diego We can see that both authors were impacted by their social and economic statuses while reading their work and applying the context of their background. Both authors grew up relatively poor. With this context in mind, when reading their work, they describe situations such as witnessing drug use or unsafe neighborhoods as the norm and as memories that reminded them of their past. In Evelyn’s Runaway, for her it was normal to think of Vancouver as an easy place to find drugs such as LSD. For Choy, it was normal to think about his childhood neighborhood as a place full of drunk men or immigration agents during the night. If we understand the context behind their upbringing it is apparent that now as they recall their memories they understand that these things are not normal, but they saw them as normal back then. One great example is Choy recalling a game him and his mom used to play. “Mother sometimes used to let me play a game with her at bedtime: On your mark, get set … and on my shout of Go! We would race to lock the door.” This was to feel safer during the night.
CHAT TWO-
Dima notes-
1- What is truth?
Truth means when what a person or when someone says matches what’s really happening.
There are a lot of ideas about truth for example like correspondence, login and coherence.
It is very important for people to do well and also to feel good that they know what is true.
True also change depending on how someone sees things or where they are.
2- Podcast
When I listened the podcast it talked about the story about the three families and they are Augusten Burroughs, his mother Margaret Robison, and his brother name John Elder Robison.
Lee Gutkind who is the professor and knows a lot about fiction and says memoirs are personal truths but they might not really be true for everyone else.
Augusten Burrough talks about his tough childish old and living with his mom who is mentally sick and a father who drinks a lot. He often stayed with another family because of the situation at home.
Margaret Robison describes herself as a creative and loving mother who struggled in her marriage and had a breakdown and left betrayed by her son,
John Elder Robison who has autism, shared his experiences of feeling like he does not fit with his family.
3-Scissors
A company makes a video games that people argue like a Postall.
This comedy drama was made by Augusten Burrough, it is about his life growing up and his childhood and about his family.
It also tells us about a story of Augusten Burrough life and he tells us about how hard it was being raised by a mother who was sick.
Questions & Answers-
1- Based on the week 7 content, how do you define “truth” and do you think it’s achievable or even desirable?
Answer- the definition of truth means different things, Augusten Burrough thinks it’s based on personal experiences. Margaret Robison mixes creativity with family struggles. John Elder Robison tells it straight, their views show how personal experiences shape what we see as true especially in families.
@Diego – My view on “truth” does not align with the postmodernism perspective described in the slides. In my opinion “truth” is not open to interpretation or is contextual. Truth is a statement of fact backed up by evidence. Lets take the example of the red circle given. “Some of you may say “red,” while others may say “crimson” or – if you spend a lot of time with Crayola crayons – “English Vermillion.”” While there are many variations of red which we have given names to in order to differentiate, I would argue the only true answer is Red as that’s the name we’ve given to that wavelength of light. I would also say that calling it by another name is not necessarily lying either. I would define lying as purposely not telling the truth for a malicious intent. So while some might claim something as the truth due to a strong emotional feeling or other and not intentionally lying, the truth always lies behind facts and evidence.
2-In the podcast “One Family, Three Memoirs, Many Competing Truths,” the interviewer quotes Lee Gutkind on truth and memoir: “It’s your story, that’s what a memoir is. [. . .] “It’s your own personal truth, and it is not necessarily factually accurate, and it’s not necessarily the truth that other people have possessed.”
Answer- @Dima- in this podcast the story of “ the long journey home” Burrough’s mother talks about some things he said, she tried to show caring mom despite her own struggles but “ look me in the eye” burrough’s brother John talked about his side about their family differently. He does not argue with Burrough directly but he shared new details and understands their parents better. This all shows how the family relationships and different views can make the truth complicated.
@Diego – In the first two chapters of his memoir Burroghs described growing up in a home where his parents were in constant arguments. “Unfortunately, my parents loathed each other and the life they had built together”. From the article One Family, Three Memoirs , Many competing Truths we can see that Burroughs mother recalls her husband as a violent man. She also makes a claim “But in those days, women were expected to marry, so she did”. This backs up the claims of Burroughs’ account growing up in a home with constant argument although not specifically stated. His brother also speaks about his mother and an incident regarding the father and getting burned. In conclusion, although there are some disagreements on specific details I think the truth that can be deducted is that it was a tumultuous environment.
3 – One great example of life writing that has always been called out by its viewers is the story of bodybuilder Mike O’hearn. Mike O’hearn has built a career on his physique and has claimed that all his achievements have been without the use of steroids. It is a popular opinion within the bodybuilding community that this is a lie. There could be many reasons as to why someone would want to hide the truth that they use steroids and it could be the case that Mike O’hearn truly believes that whatever he’s used he does not see it as what we would typically call a steroid drug. I have the personal opinion that this is just a smart way to generate attention to himself. As Karr quoted “…Doubt and wonder come to stand as part of the story”. The wonder is great at generating curiosity and attention.
I do not think life writers have an obligation to the truth as the truth is not always as exciting. Life writers after all are trying to generate attention to their work. Only when the truth is being hidden or twisted in order to do harm should it be a problem. Readers should always keep in mind the motif behind any story.
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